 | Mr. Nice by Howard Marks
Buy new: £6.94 / Used from: £0.01 This guy is a one off. A fascinating character. Educated at Oxford, extraordinary mind, yet one of Europe's biggest drug dealers. This book glistens with brilliance.
|
 | Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Buy used from: £8.09 It is a classic, but I have to say that I didn't enjoy it all that much. Its good, and the writing is nice, but it is not as good as Orwell's simiarly dystopian 1984.
|
 | 1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Buy new: £5.99 / Used from: £3.96 No doubt about it, this is an absolute classic. One of the best books from 20th century. If you haven't read it, you really should. Orwell is majestic.
|
 | The Google Story by David A. Vise
Buy new: £4.99 / Used from: £0.50 This is the best book around on the holistic story of Google. A really interesting read, you'll get the background on Sergie and Larry, and the whole Google culture. An amazing company.
|
 | Descartes: The Life of Rene Descartes and Its Place in His Times by A.C. Grayling
Buy used from: £2.18 A nice easy read, and fairly informative on his revolutionary philosophy. But Grayling does have his own unique ideas about Descartes! Interesting I suppose. Not a bad book in any sense.
|
 | The European Renaissance: Centres and Peripheries (Making of Europe) by Peter Burke
Buy new: £17.26 / Used from: £16.81 It is very short, but for a reason, it is to the point on the key elements of the Renaissance. Peter Burke is my favourite Renaissance historian, and he is just fantastic to read, a real pleasure.
|
 | The Italian Renaissance: Culture and Society in Italy by Peter Burke
Buy new: £12.94 / Used from: £10.50 Another Peter Burke classic, and again hits the nail on the head for all the key points of the Renaissance. I would read anything by Burke, a marvelous writer of historian.
|
 | In Praise of Idleness: And Other Essays (Routledge Classics) by Bertrand Russell
Buy new: £5.18 / Used from: £5.41 All of Russell's writing is great. This is a particularly interesting set of essays about working and, erm, not working. Lots of social commentary, and insightful ideas.
|
 | The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Picador) by Oliver Sacks
Buy new: £5.84 / Used from: £1.50 Neurological terminology gets a good outing here, but the content of the book is highly readable. Sacks has some really interesting stories to tell about his work in the field, odd behaviour indeed.
|
 | Joel on Software: And on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and Managers, and to Those ... or Ill-Luck, Work with Them in Some Capacity by Joel Spolsky
Buy new: £8.55 / Used from: £10.30 Joel is a really good writer, generally, and he discusses some great topics in software development. I don't agree with his methology a lot of the time, but nevertheless I admire his clarity.
|
 | Machiavelli: A Very Short Introduction by Quentin Skinner
Buy new: £4.89 / Used from: £0.07 Machiavelli was a wonderful humanist, brilliant historian, and an exceptional political theorist. This short introduction is a nice way to get aquainted with such a fine man.
|
 | The Renaissance: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) by Jerry Brotton
Buy new: £4.89 / Used from: £4.53 Vaguely useful, but to be honest, such a subject is difficult to cover so succinctly. Peter Burke is a better place to start in truth.
|
 | The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy (Classics) by Jacob Burckhardt
Buy new: £4.10 / Used from: £2.90 The most important book in the history of Renaissance study, it gets the ball moving. This guy really did kick off the subject of Renaissance history, and it is a rip-roaring read, albeit very biased!
|
 | The Complete Essays (Penguin Classics) by Michel de Montaigne
Buy new: £9.20 / Used from: £7.95 Truely magnificent! One of my favourite books of all time. An exceptional example of humanism, an exemplorary character, and brutally honest about as many subjects as he could write about.
|
 | The Art of Italian Renaissance Courts (Perspectives Series) by Alison Cole
Buy new: £15.19 / Used from: £13.29 A really good balance of visual material and background information. It is structured into good essay length sections. I quite enjoyed the authors take on aspects of Renaissance art.
|
 | The Renaissance in Europe: A Reader (Renaissance in Europe: A Cultural Enquiry) by Whitlock
Buy new: £27.51 / Used from: £12.42 This is academic, and definitely not for a general reader. However, it is packed with great material, the Burke, Ramsay, Biagioli, Rosenthal and Rabil articles are my favourites.
|
 | Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
Buy used from: £18.00 A highly refreshing read.
|
Listmania!
